This invention relates to an application used to plan and configure installations of fire safety systems. Prior configuration systems did not allow users to graphically design system configurations. Further, users could not assign devices to convenient, intuitive groups by location or other criteria, such as logical relationships. Using prior systems, users could not visually program system behavior.
The present invention provides an application which is used to program building systems such as fire safety systems. More particularly, it is an object of the invention to provide a method for creating one or more configuration files for control panels of fire safety systems to allow control panels to more efficiently control the fire safety system they are connected to. The present invention may be used to configure more than one fire safety systems. The user may begin by creating a physical view representing elements in a system, and may then next create a geographic view representing location groupings of elements or a functional view by assigning elements in a physical view and groups in a geographical view to logic elements. In a preferred embodiment, the user will create a geographic view before creating a functional view. The user then has the option of creating a control view and a network view. The user may then compile all the views the user has created into a configuration file, which may be comprised of physical and geographic views, as well as data related to the other views created, such as a functional view, a network view and a control view. The resulting configuration file may then be transferred into the memory of a control panel. Program logic is implemented in the memory of the control panel causing the control panel to control the fire safety system using the configuration file stored in memory.